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03 Aug 2015 8:57:48am

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'Ernest Fisk and the World Wide Wireless' is a wonderful program; thanks must go to Professor Jock Given who is one of the few still keeping Australia's wireless and communications history alive.

Although well within living memory that Australia was once that remote country down-under very reliant on shortwave radio to keep it in touch with the Old World, many today aren't even aware of shortwave let alone its recent history. In today's world of the Internet, smartphones and iPads, it's programs such as this that put these modern gadgets into an historical perspective, for the foundations of all modern-day electronics are firmly rooted in wireless communications--a fact all too often forgotten.

As a kid, I had a keen interest in radio and built crystal sets and shortwave radios long before the World Wide Web was ever thought of, and I despair that today's electronics is so integrated and proprietary that kids can no longer get foundational experience by hands-on and building things.

It's a small world and the history is still warm. I never knew Earnest Fisk but my mother did, having lived nearby him at Wahroonga NSW, but I did briefly meet Fisk's US contemporary, David Sarnoff, head of RCA; and during the Royal Commission into FM broadcasting (being one of the small group of FM enthusiasts who pushed for it), I met the German radio pioneer Dr Lothar Rohde when he testified before the Commission.

My dealings with AWA are another complete saga in itself.

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